The “Best Deal”: A Real Estate Story

In real estate, Brendan believes the “best deal” comes at the end of the sale, not the start.

There is a lot of talk these days about commission discounts in real estate. Some brokerages work on a bare-bones model where they charge you less to sell your home, cutting the bells and whistles. And who doesn’t like to pay less? But what if it also means you get less too? Or in the case of our clients, owners of an investment property in Liberty Village, nothing at all.

Here’s Brendan’s story:

This is a dramatic example of the difference in effectiveness between two approaches to selling, and a rare opportunity to do each back-to-back and really show how different the results can be. You see, these Sellers had already gone through a month of trying the lean cost-cutting approach of a discount DIY brokerage without the results they had hoped for. The owner happened to be the father of one of our past clients. Our client suggested his dad call us, to get a new team on the case when they were ready to relist with someone else. The Sellers were skeptical of the value we could add, but we strongly believed we could get them more money than the number they were unable to secure when handling the sale themselves.

Same condo, different approach

The Sellers had owned this investment condo for some time and when the tenants left, they decided to take advantage of the great market conditions and sell. The condo was spruced up and ready to go by the time we got called in.

In order to make this work, we needed the full BREL effort. We pride ourselves on a number of qualities that set us apart – acting quickly, responsiveness and keeping clients informed at each stage. Our photography, marketing and staging, our ability to deal with international clients digitally, knowing the market and the signs that indicate when we need to pivot to take advantage of good timing, our stellar negotiation skills… all were exactly what the client needed…and exactly what they DIDN’T get from their initial experience of trying to sell. It was a great opportunity to show off the power of what we do for the benefit of our clients.

All business, all the timezones

Working with investors can be a little different – these relationships are all business, and you need to be ready to work at the pace of your clients. With this sale, we were able to do everything while the parties involved were in three different locations, and three timezones spanning 8 hours! We literally never even needed to meet in person during the process.

You gotta know when to hold ‘em

Some deals come together quickly. But, if you watch the signs, there are times when you want them to slow down so you can bring more parties to the table. Knowing when to take the deal and when to hold comes from experience – and I knew this was one of those times. Let me walk you through it.

Our trusted partners came through in spades and we received the floorplans and photos a day early, so we were able to list the condo as a ‘Coming Soon’ on our exclusive channels before the official listing date. This generated a few calls before we even hit the market. We listed it on MLS first thing on Wednesday morning, and had 5 Buyer showings that same evening, with two of them returning for a second look later the same night.

At midnight we received an offer. Great! (Right?)

But here’s the thing: we already had 7 showings booked for Thursday and some of the agents were showing an unusual amount of interest. That’s higher activity than normal for that building and neighbourhood, so we knew we were on to something good. We needed to slow things down with the current offer.

We convinced the offer on the table to re-submit it with a longer expiration time. Meanwhile, another person showed interest in submitting an offer, so I asked them to make it valid until midnight on Friday evening. A third agent from the first day then told me his clients were serious investors but not flying back until Thursday night, so he booked a 9 am Friday appointment and was confident he’d be bringing an offer.

Almost simultaneously at 2:30 Friday afternoon, they both submitted offers. At this point, I let them know that they were now in a 3-offer competition, including the offer that came on the first day, and I gave all other interested agents one last chance to join the fray. At the end of the day, one offer rose to the top and was accepted.

Within one week, that condo was cleaned, staged and listed on MLS. We were on the market for 3 days, had 22 showing appointments and received 3 offers on a property that didn’t sell the entire month before. It sold well above the asking price.

An experience that exceeds expectations

I have the utmost confidence in everyone on our team. This is one of those transactions that validates our investment in the areas of our business that allow us to give clients the very best (staging and marketing). Here, the Sellers’ previous approach had gone so badly, yet I felt there was nothing wrong with the unit itself or the market for it. In other words, the things I have control over were all the things I felt this client needed to have the outcome they were looking for. They were able to move on without the stress of an unsold asset sitting on the market costing them money.

And that is the best deal for all involved.